Attraction

Attraction is a very unpredictable thing. People that we thought nothing of, and felt no attraction to at one point in time may catch our eye at a later time. Something unseen is revealed to us, and those things that frightened us at first we may later find endearing.

What is interesting about McTeague and Trina's attraction for each other is that it almost seems predestined. In fact, the whole story has that feel about it. The events take place almost without the characters having any choice in the matter. It is inevitable.

Women want security. If there is anything that Trina craves in her man, it is security. In McTeague she finds pure strength, a strength that pulls down all her fears. Any time she feels insecure about the relationship, all she needs is McTeague to wrap his massive mallet arms around her and she feels that everything is okay. How ironic that she falls for McTeague's brute strength, the same strength that will leave her brutally murdered by the end of the story. And yet the more McTeague abuses Trina, the more she falls for him. In her odd friendship with Maria, she even takes pride in her wounds, signs of her husbands inhuman strength. She comes to love him more and more as time progresses.

The attraction of men in the story is something far different. McTeague sees Trina as something to be conquered. He does his best to bring her in, a feat that we are quite surprised to find him successful in. However, when she finally yields to him, something is lost to him. The chase is over. He finds that what he was looking for was an illusion. He is infatuated. You always want what you can't have; and now that he has it, his desire for Trina begins to falter from this point forward.

"Never were they happier than at this moment."

That's not a good way to start a marriage.